Special Interest

Why didn’t someone tell me that a postdoc will do NOTHING for my career? Have you ever asked yourself the above question? A report from The Postdoctoral Experience Revisited highlighted the shocking truth about doing a postdoc—a postdoc is a “lousy decision” for PhDs. An academic postdoc will neither result in an academic job nor otherwise advance your career. This is why there is a pile up of postdocs around the world. A report by the National Institutes of Health found that there are between 37,000 and 68,000 postdocs in the U.S. alone. The truth is the academic system is…

Academia does not take care of its PhD-level employees. According to a report by the Royal Society, the proportion of PhDs who now manage to secure academic tenure positions is only 1-in-200. That’s right—academia only provides a future for 1 out of every 200 PhDs. The rest are left to fend for themselves. But, if things are so bad in academia, why do so many PhDs choose to stay in academia after getting their degrees? They’ve listened to myths and lies perpetuated by other academics. If you want to transition out of academia, you need to stop believing these myths.…

Why are so many PhDs unemployed? Why do so many PhDs drop out? The problem is too many PhDs allow themselves to become either reliant on or beat down by the academic system. All too often, the academic system thrives on eliminating an individual’s self-confidence. The system convinces its members that working longer and harder hours in the lab is the answer to all of their problems. Feeling unhappy, unsuccessful, and unappreciated? Work harder in the lab. Getting treated poorly by your advisor? Can’t afford rent? About to lose funding? About to lose your visa? Work harder in the lab.…

The idea that focusing solely on your thesis and publications will guarantee you a job in industry is a myth. This myth has kept many graduate students from exploring careers and networking with professionals during graduate school. If you put all of your focus on your research during graduate school and neglect to explore other careers or develop skills that are valued in industry, you will leave tens of thousands of dollars on the table. By reframing your graduate school experiences and challenges into learning opportunities, you can make the most out of graduate school and set yourself up to…

There’s nothing better than a positive principal investigator who inspires and trains you to be a better scientist. At the same time, there’s nothing worse than an abusive investigator who refuses to support your career. If your academic advisor is mistreating you, don’t sit there and do nothing. Don’t keep giving away more and more of your rights and self-respect until you have nothing left. Instead, start setting strong boundaries for yourself and your career. Speak up about what’s happening and begin making plans for your future. Know your rights and know what’s expected of both you and your advisor.…

Technical skills are not enough to get you hired in industry. You need additional, transferable skills to get hired. You need to develop knowledge and expertise beyond scientific research to set yourself apart from the competition. Most PhDs fail to develop the transferable skills they need to get an industry job. Instead, they make excuses like being too busy in the lab or being under too much pressure from their academic advisor. The truth is there are many ways to learn and nurture transferable skills while still in the lab. The key is that these skills are best learned first-hand,…

Postdocs are not valuable in academia. It’s simple economics. The supply of postdocs in academia far exceeds the demand for them. This makes postdocs essentially worthless in academia. The data don’t lie. Postdocs make less than librarians, mail carriers, and garbage collectors. This means that if you’re an academic postdoc, professionally you are worth less than librarians, mail carriers, and garbage collectors. The end. This can't be denied. The good news is that in industry you are worth much more. The only way to escape a dead end postdoc is to develop an intelligent job search strategy. But before you…

Too many PhDs and PhD students become mentally weak in academia. These highly intelligent individuals get caught in the vicious circle of accepting less than they’re worth and feeling entitled to something better. Academia can either be a launching pad for your personal and professional growth, or a breeding ground for negativity, isolation, and despair. Ultimately, it’s your call. You must decide what you will tolerate in academia and what you will not tolerate. What will your boundaries be? What will you accept for yourself? What are you doing to improve your situation? How you answer these questions will determine…

Things may be depressing in academia, but you don’t have to be depressed. Academia is no longer able to provide PhDs with jobs, funding, or even support. But there are many things you can do to avoid academic stress. You can make a decision to stop giving everything to a system that has nothing to offer you in return. You can decide to leave this broken system and transition into a non-academic career. This decision alone can make you feel better. At the same time, you can work to develop a kind of immune system against the doom and gloom…

I thought about quitting graduate school in the beginning of my 6th year. I was almost certain that there was no way that I could graduate that year, or ever for that matter. I started several dead-end projects, and most of my data was inconsistent and did not support any of my hypotheses. I felt stuck and trapped in my own life. The irony was that I actually created this life for myself because I thought that getting a PhD degree was the road to a better life and a career that I would be passionate about. I finally summoned…

If you get depressed or anxious as a graduate student or postdoc, don't be ashamed. Getting a PhD and working at the bench is very hard. It requires a high-level of intelligence backed by even more tenacity. If you don’t keep your mindset in check, these things can spin out of control. Remember to take care of yourself and your mind by opening up about your problems, challenging limiting beliefs, celebrating your wins, and going your own way. Do this and you’ll be in a much better place mentally and emotionally. Your career will be in a much better place…

Academia is broken. The time to transition out of it is now. The academic career track is now a dead end career track. Hiding from truth will not protect you from this future. The only way to protect yourself is to take steps to change your situation right now. If you don’t take action, you will be one of the tens of thousands of poor, unhappy postdocs who are piling up all over the world. But the biggest reasons to transition out of academia are not in the numbers, they’re in the day-to-day lifestyle that PhDs have to endure. Ignoring…